5 Ingredients or less: Almond Lace Cookies | Florentines

If you were a kid in the 90s, growing up in India, you would remember the candy LactoKing. I think there were other manufacturers who called it Maha Lacto, or Lactocaramel. But it was essentially the same. Hard toffee, sweet, caramel like with a hard bite to it. Yello wrapper. 50 paise each.

After Coffee bite, they were my second favourite candy. And guess what? This cookie, tastes just like that! The same taste, crunch, plus the added nuts. Yumm! They originally come from the Tuscan region of Italy, where they are called Florentines and don’t they look beautiful? See that lovely see-through pattern? Hence the nickname, Lace cookies.

If you weren’t an Indian kid in the 90s, well then these are the Trader Joe’s Lacey cookies – the ones they sell coated with chocolate on one side.

These are deceptively simple to make, needing absolutely no physical exertion. Take the ingredients, let it come to a boil for a minute, stir in the flour, scoop onto the baking sheet, bake and voila! It’s done. No whisking, no rolling, so cutting, shaping, nothing! And it is fool-proof! Perfect for the holidays, or as a hostess gift. Wrap them in a ribbon, or put them in a cute box, and you are all set!

If not, these small wafers will work beautifully as a garnish on a dessert, say a slice of chocolate cake, or a scoop of ice cream.

Optional: 1. You can brush one side with melted chocolate for an added boost of flavour and texture. But the ones brushed with chocolate tend to soften a bit, with no loss in flavour.

Ingredients

Instructions

In a small pan, melt the butter, sugar, honey and almonds over medium heat. Let it come to a boil, and let boil for a minute.

Remove from heat, and stir in the flour.

For large cookies, drop a tablespoon of batter per cookie, and space it at least 3 inches apart. They really spread while baking. For small, wafer thin cookies, drop a teaspoon of batter per cookie, spaced 2 inches apart.

Bake at 375°F for 8-9 minutes for large cookies, 4-6 minutes for the small ones. Bake only one tray at a time, in the middle rack of the oven, turning the tray around halfway through baking.

Remove from oven and let cool in the pan. They will be very soft when they come out, and get hard and crisp once cooled.

Notes: 1. You could re-use the same tray+ parchment paper. Let the first batch cool, remove and then pour in the next batch. If the batter had solidified a bit, then reheat over medium heat till liquid again, then spoon onto the baking tray.

2. To make clean-up a breeze, soak the pan used to make the batter in water for 15-20 minutes. The sugars will dissolve and rinse right off!

I’m really not sure if coconut oil would work Helene, but I can definitely add it into my veganize+test list. I’m still working my way through the blog archives, veganizing recipes, and I promise, I’ll get to this soon. In the meantime, if you find that it works, will you let me know??? So I can update it in the post so others who wish to veganize it will find it helpful?